Isla Maganda Philippines: Peace Education for Conflict-Affected Children

This project aims to produce and implement new episodes of Isla Maganda a customized educational entertainment program for the Philippines. The educational program uses cartoons to teach children peace education and social-emotional learning. It seeks to instill positive values in kindergarten to grade three students during their most formative years of development by promoting foundational elements for peace such as the rule of law gender equality non-violence empathy and critical thinking. Through the delivery of gender-sensitive peace education the project aims to improve the well-being of children in conflict-affected regions. Project activities include: (1) launching an online campaign on the existing 20 Isla Maganda episodes to generate awareness and interest; (2) developing and producing 20 new Isla Maganda episodes and accompanying lesson plans; (3) providing training to school heads education supervisors and teachers on the curriculum; (4) distributing student activity books teacher guides companion storybooks and USBs with animated episodes to school divisions; and (5) implementing the curriculum for in-class students. This project expects to target 44 000 children (50% girls) and 5 500 school heads education supervisors and teachers across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the adjacent Lanao del Norte region.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) improved social cohesion and gender equality by children within target schools in conflict-affected regions of the Philippines; and (2) improved delivery of gender-sensitive peace education by the Ministry of Basic Higher and Technical Education and the Department of Education in conflict-affected regions of the Philippines.